The costs of carrying out mobile money transactions could be going up. This will come after a new tax proposal that was tabled to the parliament by Finance Minister Njeru Githae on Thursday 4 October 2012. The proposition seeks to subject mobile money transfer services to a 10% tax. The minister wants the excise duty on fees charged for money transfer services by mobile phone service providers, banks, money transfer agencies and other financial service providers to be 10%.
A staffer at Safaricom who sought to remain anonymous said that if the proposal comes to pass, it would most likely impact on increasing the consumer charges on M-Pesa, while other operators such as Airtel and Yu who have mobile money transfer platforms that allow their subscribers to send money to other users at no cost could be forced to impose fees on this service.
[Read: Zero Fees To Transfer Money Through Airtel Money]
The proposal also targets beers and wines, proposing a 10% increment on excise duty, to 50% from 40% on the retail prices. Malt beer beer would be KES 70 a litre or 50% of the retail price. The proposals come at a time when the government claims to be under pressure to pay its workers as more and more demand wage increment.